Films can make you feel a lot of things, but it is rare that one can make you feel pure, unbridled joy. With its sincerity and sweetness, Paul King’s Paddington 2, sequel to 2014’s successful adaptation of the beloved Michael Bond character,is just such a film.

Paddington Brown (Ben Wishaw) wants to buy an extra special birthday present for his beloved Aunt Lucy (Imelda Staunton) who is about to turn one hundred, to say thank you for all that she has done for him. In Mr Gruber’s (Jim Broadbent) old curiosity shop he finds just the thing, a pop-up book of the sights of London. The only problem is that it is a one of a kind antique, and much more expensive than a humble bear can afford. Knowing it is the perfect gift, Paddington sets out to find himself a job. However, when the shop is broken into and the book stolen, Paddington finds himself falsely blamed and thrown into prison. Continue reading →

SPECTRE, the Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion, has an iconic place in the James Bond series, with the evil organisation having been 007’s nemesis in six of the first seven films. But in the 1960s, Kevin McClory, the co-author of Thunderball, launched legal action against Ian Fleming after Fleming failed to give him appropriate credit for the novel, and was awarded sole rights to the SPECTRE name. For this reason, despite its iconic status, SPECTRE has not been mentioned in a Bond film since Diamonds are Forever in 1971. In 2013, four decades and sixteen Bond films later, a deal was struck between the McClory estate and MGM to return the rights, and the studio wasted no time in reintroducing SPECTRE into the fold, placing it front and centre in Bond 24, called, unsurprisingly, Spectre.

After receiving a secret message from an old ally, James Bond (Daniel Craig) goes rogue on what starts out as an assassination mission in Mexico City and ends up in Rome with the discovery of a secret organisation that has been behind many of the villains he has faced in the recent past. Continue reading →